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Climbing the Tallest Trees

A select group of adventurers climb the world’s tallest trees to learn more about the wildlife that lives on the highest branches

Climbers Brian French and Will Koomjian ascend the Brummit fir in Coos County Oregon. It is the National Champion Douglas fir and stands 335 feet tall.
(Freesolo Photography / Sean O'Connor)

By
Peter Beland

smithsonian.com
March 30, 2009

“Watch out! Boomer hole!” someone shouted, and I narrowly avoided twisting my ankle in the burrow of a mountain beaver. These primitive rodents, nicknamed for the booming grunts they produce, have dug a network of tunnels through this patch of old-growth forest that would be the envy of any World War I general. After a treacherous two-hour march along steep elk trails near the Siuslaw National Forest in Oregon, our eight-person group reached base camp like so many exhausted pack mules. With only a few hours of sunlight left, we set to work immediately. One man loaded a bolt into his crossbow and took aim—not at the rodents below, but at the giants that surrounded us.

Expedition co-founder Brian French assesses his entry point on a giant fir tree known as the Gatton Goliath found in the Olympic Peninsula, Washington.
(Freesolo Photography / Sean O'Connor)

Expedition co-founder Will Koomjian makes his way up the world's largest Douglas fir tree deep in the Canadian wilderness on Vancouver Island.
(Freesolo Photography / Sean O'Connor)

Ascending the Giants videographer John Walker ascends the new champion Sitka Spruce tree to film a new nomination after the previous champion known as the Klootchy Creek fell due to hard winter winds. The tree is located on Cape Meares, Oregon and stands 144 feet tall.
(Freesolo Photography / Sean O'Connor)

Will Koomjian surveys his surroundings perched on a branch of the country's largest black walnut tree located on Sauvie Island.
(Freesolo Photography / Sean O'Connor)

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The bolt, with 30-pound-test fishing line attached, sailed up and over the canopy of the imposing 266-foot-tall tree in front of us. After a few more volleys, it crossed over a high, sturdy limb. Using knots worthy of a Boy Scout—a clove hitch and a few half hitches—another member of the team attached a lightweight rope to the fishing line. This rope was pulled over the limb and used in turn to pull up the 600-foot-long climbing rope.

As four men struggled together to pull the climbing rope over the giant tree, I couldn’t get the image out of my head of Lilliputians trying to tie down Gulliver—this can only end in tragedy. But these professional arborists approached the challenge with steady arms and clear minds. Members of the group Ascending the Giants (ATG), they climb some of the tallest trees on the planet to document them and the plants and animals they harbor.

That evening, I took off my mud-caked boots and slipped into my "tree boat," a specialized hammock used to sleep in tree canopies. Four members of the ATG team took off their arborist helmets and slipped into their respective tree boats. The only difference was that while I was sleeping five feet above the ground, they were roughly 200 feet up. The next morning, I ate a Clif Bar near my backpack and watched the modern-day Tarzans as they cooked food in their hammocks above. One of ATG’s founding members, Will Koomjian, rappelled down and crossed the fallen, moss-laden tree that served as our bridge over the clear water of Wassen Creek. Reading my thoughts, he asked nonchalantly, “Hey, you want to give it a try?”

I saddled up, stepping into a harness and attaching foot and arm ascenders to the rope. The ascenders are climbing tools that move up a rope but cannot move down—for good reason. I was given a crash course on tree climbing. Push down on feet ascenders, push up with arm ascenders, stick your butt out and rest. This was no place for vanity. I stared up the mostly naked tree trunk and ran my eyes higher and higher along the black rope until it blended with the branches above. I squirmed up the trunk for 100 vertical feet or so, and was finally high enough to catch the sunlight that was obscured by the canopy.

When I paused, I saw two inchworms hanging from strands of silk attached to a sun-kissed branch. The absurdity of dangling from a single rope far above the ferns below was put into perspective quickly. These minuscule creatures braved these heights naturally; they were part of the tree. My fascination with this special place grew with each push. The remaining 100 feet went by in a blur.

Up in the branches of this goliath, I felt the tree sway back and forth with the wind, an unsettling sensation. From the ground, the nine-foot-wide tree almost seemed sturdy enough to support the earth below it and not the other way around. But from my precarious vantage point in the canopy, I spied a forest floor littered with fallen giants.

“Oh, it’s at least 500 years old; it’s been through plenty of storms," said ATG co-founder Brian French, in an offhand attempt to both reassure and terrify me as we chatted 200 feet up in the tree. "Of course, I could be wrong.” We shot the breeze some more, and as the musk of ancient fir and moss wafted into my nostrils, I was reminded that this is a living organism.

Ascending the Giants, founded in 2007 by French and Koomjian, documents the largest, so-called “champion” trees of a given species. The group is a mix of certified arborists, a canopy biologist, a professional photographer and a filmmaker. They use the strict measuring guidelines of the American Forest Point system and register the trees they study with the National Register of Big Trees (for national champions) and various state registries (for state champions). Often the trees ATG studies are the largest of their kind in the world. The registries encourage people to nominate any large trees they come across, but above all they value accurate measurements to establish what are truly the largest specimens.

The interest in super-sized trees has helped ATG disseminate its findings and educate the public about the importance of old-growth trees and their peculiar, sensitive ecosystems. Though the group's primary mission is to document the existence of possible champion trees and to update official records, it also studies the fascinating and rare species that favor old-growth forests.

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